2025 was a real turning point at Glotman Simpson. Over the past year, we built a solid foundation for our sustainability work, particularly around how we measure and understand the embodied carbon of our projects. With 2026 underway we are ready to add another level of progress — expanding our efforts in measuring, reporting, and advocating for low-carbon buildings.

For those new to this blog series, our firm continues to develop our tools and processes to track and report the embodied carbon associated with the buildings we design. Embodied carbon refers to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with producing, transporting, building, and the eventual demolition of building materials. These impacts are typically measured in Global Warming Potential (GWP) or Embodied Carbon intensity (ECI), typically in the units of tCO₂e or kgCO₂e/m² respectively.

In essence, this work focuses on the environmental impact of the building’s physical structure – the counterpart to operational energy use and heating demands over its lifespan.

2026 Outlook

Last year, we got into the swing of measuring, tracking and reporting the GWP intensities for the concrete and steel buildings we design. This year, we are continuing to update our tools to ensure we are accurately measuring the quantities and emissions of timber buildings, too (both traditional wood frame and mass timber). We will continue to measure projects and see whether continued technical and process development in our engineering results in lower ECI.

We have several case studies in the works that we are excited to share as soon as they are ready, and we look forward to spending many more lunch hours with developers and architects discussing embodied carbon and building layout efficiencies throughout the year.
If you’re interested in having us host a lunch and learn for your team, we’d be happy to connect.

Behind the scenes, we are advancing a number internal initiatives and processes to ensure each project is given the time and attention to look at sustainability while developing cost-effective structures to meet client goals. We are also finishing up our reporting for the SE2050 and Responsible Buildings Pact initiatives, which we are signatories of. We’re looking forward to releasing these reports as soon as they are ready.

Finally, we will continue our monthly OnTrack series – delivering practical and thoughtful insights structural engineering plays in a lower-carbon built environment.

Together, we can contribute to a more sustainable built environment. If you are interested in sustainability and would like to discuss any of the topics in this article, please get in touch with us at [email protected].

For more information on our sustainability initiatives and to stay updated on our latest projects, visit our website and follow our OnTrack blog series.